Nerd Notes: British History in a Nutshell

Daniel Hannan has encapsulated the whole of British history into 6 key themes.  What do you think?

1.   Where we came from. The earliest Britons; the invaders – Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans; the Flemings, Huguenots and Jews; the Commonwealth settlers.

2.   How we became a country. The Acts of Union with Wales (1536 and 1542), Scotland (1707) and Ireland (1801); and the Partition (1921).

3.   The roots of our rights. Anglo-Saxon common law; the Great Charter; the Grand Remonstrance; the Levellers; the Bill of Rights; the Great Reform Act; the Chartists; the Suffragettes.

4.   When we fought each other. The Reformation; the English Civil War, and its associated Scottish and Irish conflicts; the Glorious Revolution.

5.   When we fought our neighbours. The intermittent French campaigns between 1340 and 1815; the Spanish Armada; the wars against the Kaiser and Hitler.

6.   Why the world speaks our language. The settlement of North America, and the American Revolution; the British Empire and Commonwealth; decolonisation.

You may also be interested in the lovely Brits at Their Best blog, which highlights the British inheritance and its contributions.  In a very real way, we all share that inheritance.